Chiefs defend HS2 after 'flimsy' costs criticised
The cost of and need for the controversial HS2 scheme has been defended by transport chiefs who faced criticism from MPs that it was a 'project plucked out of the air'.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee was meeting after Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced that the budget for HS2 had risen from £33billion to £42.6bn.
Department for Transport Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam told the PAC that part of the rise in the cost was due to decisions taken to put more of the route in tunnels to minimise disruption. He also said the project, whose first phase, now costing as much as £21.4bn, will see a new line built from London to Birmingham cutting through swathes of Staffordshire countryside, was needed to relieve congestion on the West Coast Main Line.
But members of the PAC described the project as 'a white elephant'. Austin Mitchell, Labour member for Great Grimsby, claimed the £14.4bn of 'contingency' now built into the overall £42.6bn price showed how 'shaky and flimsy' the cost estimates for the scheme were.
Mr Mitchell went on: "Here is a project plucked out of the air so we can compete with the French."
Legislation
DfT's HS2 director general David Prout told MPs it was planned that work on the first phase of HS2 would start in 2016/17 and be completed by the end of 2026.
Mr Rutnam said this was dependent on legislation getting Royal Assent by March 2015.
The committee's chairman Margaret Hodge, Labour for Barking, reacted with incredulity to this timetable, saying it was 'complete madness' to think the March 2015 target could be met.
The first phase of HS1 passes through Tory heartlands in the Chilterns and is bitterly opposed by some residents and councils including Stafford Borough and Lichfield District.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Nigel Lawson has stated his opposition to the project and last weekend Alistair Darling, ano-ther former Chancellor and also a former transport secretary, expressed his doubts about HS2.
Mrs Hodge questioned whether, in looking at HS2's value for money, too much emphasis had been put on the time business travellers would save if the line went ahead. "Other countries put a lesser value on business time when looking at rail projects ecause they recognise people work on trains," said Mrs Hodge.
Alison Munro, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, the company responsible for developing and promoting the project, said there was evidence that HS2 would lead to regional growth.
